At The Movies byMikePlake
“100 Rifles”
stars ex-football giant Jim
Brown; Raquel Welch; and new
comer, to this viewer at least,
Burt Reynolds.
It is the second big western
for Miss Welch, who also starred
in “Bandolero.” It does the same
job of revealing Miss Welch’s
fantastic ability as an actress as
did that Dean . Martin-James
Stewart flick. But “100 Rifles”
does it differently; not only does
it show just how bad Miss Welch
is at acting, it shows just how
good she is taking a shower in
the semi-nude and spilling blood
and guts all over the screen.
One of the best-known facts
about this flick is the love scene
between Jim Brown, the black
policeman called Lydecker, and
the brown Mexican revolutionar-
ess, played by—you guessed it—
Miss Welch. After the first en
counter, she becomes his woman,
explicitly.
THE PLOT: Jim Brown is a
policeman trailing Burt Rey
nolds, a half-breed Yachi-Ala
bamian who stole $6,000 from
a bank in Lydecker’s town. And
Lydecker catches him. Then they,
in turn, are caught by a power-
hungry Mexican general, played
by Fernando Lamas.
It turns out that the half-
breed, Joe, bought 100 rifles for
the Yacquis (who were fighting
the general) with the stolen
bank money. And that’s what
the flick is all about, between
hot love scenes and gory battles
which saw Mexicans massacred
in every which way.
Another good thing about this
movie is that it lets a real hon-
est-to-God, masculine Negro
man, the likes of Jim Brown,
fill the starring role. It’s similar
to The Scalphunters, only the
white man (Reynolds) does the
supporting. In fact, it lends cre
dence to the idea that black peo
ple may have existed in the Old
West, and even further, they
might have made real, honest-
to-God heroes. Although you
would never realize this from
comic books, television, cartoons,
or Saturday movie serials, all of
which combined to make up our
image of the old American west.
JIM BROWN has an aura
about him. Like one of the audi
ence said last night, “He looks
like he’s gonna run a power
sweep.” And he does, several
times, and his little army (they
elected him general) wipes out
approximately all the Mexicans
in the world.
So that’s it in a nutshell: it’s
full of gory fighting, has a few
torrid love scenes, and looks a
little like an American western
made in Spain, a la “Fistful of
Dollars.”
And it was.
STUDENTS
(Continued Frim Page 1)
civilian side, do a fine job. There
is also the matter of precedent
to be considered. It’s very im
portant.”
Maddox mentioned that a new
proposal will be made at the
Senate meeting next Thursday.
“WHAT IT will probably be,”
he said, “is the addition of some
students to the present board—
the exact number to be decided
later. I definitely think students
ought to have a say in these
matters.
“I think students should have
the opportunity to be judged by
their peers. For that matter, stu
dents are often harder on student
offenders than the administration
would be.
“I am confident that we will
effect some kind of change,” Mad
dox continued. “I think that some
type of student participation is
vital.”
CADET SLOUCH
by Jim Earle
“It’s sorta a variation of a cuckoo clock to help me with my
studying!”
John Platzer
Post Office Needs
Massive Changes
“Neither rain, nor sleet nor
dark of night can keep the post
man from his appointed rounds.”
What about outdated build
ings, equipment and methods,
however? According to Post
master General W i n t o n M.
Blount, problems such as these
are causing the United States
postal system to teeter on the
brink of a complete breakdown.
“Everything about the postal
service is archaic — the build
ings, the equipment, the way
things are done. People are de
livering mail today the way they
have always delivered it,” Blount
has said.
“There has been little atten
tion to new techniques and new
ways to approach problems.”
AS THE quality of the mail
service has declined, the cost to
the taxpayer has increased. The
Post Office Department expects
to handle 84 billion pieces of mail
next year on a total budget of $8
billion and a prospective deficit
of $1.5 billion.
The only solution to the dilem
ma would seem to be the opera
tion of the post office by the
government as a private busi
ness seeking profits instead of as
just another governmental
agency.
Blount says that his depart
ment is “the single government
agency that can benefit most
from the management techniques
and the modern facilities that
have been so successful in busi
ness. We just haven’t been us
ing them.”
THE NIXON Administration
should be applauded for its stand
in removing postmasters and
rural mail carriers from the
political-patronage system. This
allows the post office to hire the
best people available for each
job instead of worrying about
who knows which politicians.
Still more freedom and flexi
bility has to be given to the de
partment if it is to prosper,
however.
“We just cannot continue to
operate in the way we are doing
now. Congress controls the rates
we charge the public, Congress
controls the wages we pay our
employes, and Congress controls
the amount of funds available
for capital investment. As a re
sult, we are hamstrung,” Blount
says.
“WE HAVE got to have more
freedom — the same sort of flex
ibility that any business or pub
lic utility has in its day-to-day
operations.”
An example of how the postal
department is tied down through
governmental control is the way
money is appropriated for capi
tal facilities. When money is
appropriated to the postal de
partment, it is charged directly
to that year’s budget. Industry,
on the other hand, can amortize
the price of a new building over
30 or 40 years and the price of a
new machine over 10 to 15 years.
Britain, which has experienced
the same sort of postal problems
as the United States in recent
years, is going to an independent
postal corporation to be run by
businessmen rather than politi
cians.
THE UNITED States would do
well to study the British pro
gram and to adopt its more suc
cessful aspects.
If everyone had the same at
titude as Henry David Thoreau
(who said: “I have received no
more than one or two" letters in
my life that were worth the
postage”), there would be no
problem. This is not the case,
however.
The most immediate problem
facing the postal system is one
of direction.
“We have a more immediate
problem: That is to bring this
Department — kicking and
screaming — into the last third
of the twentieth century,” Blount
has said.
“If we can do that, we will
have done something pretty dra
matic.”
THE BATTALION
Page 2 College Station, Texas Friday, April 11, 1969
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Zone 6
i
IT'5 RAINING, AMP l‘M LOST ANP
I CANTFINPMYMOVL.I SHOULD
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By Charles M. Schulz